“Businesses hired aggressively in November and there is little evidence that the uncertainty surrounding the presidential election dampened hiring,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics, which produces the report with payroll processor ADP. “In addition, because of the tightening labor market, retailers may be accelerating seasonal hiring to secure an adequate workforce to meet holiday demand, although total expected seasonal hiring may be no higher than last year’s.”

Ahu Yildirmaz, vice president and head of the ADP Research Institute, said, “…growth was seen in primarily consumer-driven industries like retail and leisure and hospitality-across all company sizes. Overall, consumers are feeling confident and are driving the strong performance we currently see in the job market.”

Economists surveyed by Bloomberg are predicting that Friday’s report from the Labor Department will show the addition of 180,000 jobs to public and private payrolls. Friday’s report will also provide the latest unemployment numbers and data on wage growth. The PayScale Index, which measures the change in wages for employed U.S. workers, forecasts 1 percent year-over-year wage growth for Q4 2016.

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Jen Hubley Luckwaldt

Jen Hubley Luckwaldt writes about work-life balance, stress management, and other topics relating to what makes us happy at work. A full-time freelancer, she deals with stress by blurring the lines between life and work to the point where the two spheres are barely separate. The happiest day of her career was when scientists proved that looking at pictures of cute animals makes us more productive.